3 Michigan Coaches Earn NFHS Honor
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
January 16, 2019
Three Michigan high school coaches with long histories of championship success were honored Wednesday with 2018 National Coaches of the Year awards presented by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NHFS) Coaches Association.
Midland Dow boys tennis coach Terry Schwartzkopf, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep girls volleyball coach Betty Wroubel and Bloomfield Hills Marian and Birmingham Brother Rice golf coach Leon Braisted III – formerly the longtime coach of the girls and boys programs at Birmingham Seaholm – earned three of the 22 available NFHS awards and have led their programs to a combined 13 MHSAA Finals championships.
The following brief bios include excerpts from each honoree’s coaching philosophy, which they were asked to submit after being identified as candidates for the awards.
Leon Braisted III began coaching both the girls and boys Birmingham Seaholm teams in 1998 and guided those programs through the 2015-16 school year. He led the Maples girls to Lower Peninsula Division 2 championships in 2006, 2008 and three straight from 2013-15, and also to five runner-up Finals finishes. His Seaholm boys team was Division 2 runner-up in 1999. Braisted has coached the Bloomfield Hills Marian girls the last three seasons and the Birmingham Brother Rice boys the last two, leading Marian to a Division 2 runner-up finish in 2017. Rice finished seventh in Division 1 this spring. Braisted was inducted into the Michigan Interscholastic Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2015.
“An athletic program opens the door for students to become involved in different sports. Any sport the student joins is quite a learning experience. A coach through practices teaches the players to be ‘team players and learn the rules of the sport.’ During the practices and playing the sport, players learn tolerance, become alert to their surroundings, and most importantly (the sport) offers exercise. As a golf coach for 21 years I recognize that golf is a lifelong sport. The player learns patience, perseverance and (the sport) motivates the individual to desire to improve (his or her) game. At the beginning of each new season, I encourage the students to join in participating on a golf team. I do not turn any students away from being on the team whether they know how to play golf or not. There is much one can learn from being a teammate and facing the challenge of self- improvement, along with meeting new friends. Joining a sports team is more than just excelling on the field. It is the ability to meet others, a place and time where a person can enjoy the moments away from the rapid pace of daily life.”
Terry Schwartzkopf took over the Midland Dow program in 2007 after seven years leading the junior varsity. He guided the Chargers to five straight Lower Peninsula Division 2 championships from 2009-13 and a sixth title in 2016. He was named the statewide boys tennis Coach of the Year in 2017 by the Michigan High School Tennis Coaches Association and led Dow to unbeaten seasons in 2010, 2011 and 2014. His team finished fifth at the Division 2 Final this fall and tied for second in 2017.
“I believe that the sport is irrelevant when it comes to coaching. Granted, specific content knowledge is imperative to success, but coaching is about creating a stable environment in which young individuals can mature as individuals and athletes. I believe that athletics help individuals learn how to cope with loss, cope with success, and how to work to achieve a goal. It allows them the ability to feel that they contribute to something greater than themselves, to put team before self, and serves as something that unites players regardless of age or circumstances. Due to this mindset, our teams tend to be a tight-knit bond of individuals who help each other to succeed. In fact, this year alone I have had seven alumni return at various times in order to work with the team, desiring to give back to the program. In fact, my original captain returned to serve as a volunteer assistant coach this year. These legends give faces to the names that my players have heard stories of as they continue to unite this team past, present, and future. … The records, trophies, and competition are a wonderful part of the game of tennis, but the real victories come in watching these young boys turn into productive men willing to serve others, live with integrity, and exhibit character and sportsmanship both on and off the court.”
Betty Wroubel is the third-winningest coach in MHSAA volleyball history at 1,486-308-130 after leading the Fighting Irish to a 64-6 record and Division 2 runner-up finish this fall. She started her varsity head coaching career in the sport at Clawson, guiding that program from 1979-82. She then led the Pontiac and Oakland Catholic program from 1989-94 and has coached Notre Dame Prep since its first season in 1994-95. Her teams won Class B titles in Fall 2007, 2013 and 2017. Wroubel also coaches the softball team – she led Pontiac Catholic to the Class C title in 1983 – and serves as Notre Dame Prep’s athletic director. She was inducted into the Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2014.
“My philosophy of athletics has changed considerably since I started coaching and has continued to change throughout my career. I believe that athletics provide a powerful vehicle to teach and prepare our student athletes not only in sport, but more importantly in life. My responsibility has never been solely to teach my players to play and love the sport of volleyball, but rather to pursue their passion for something they love and how to grow as young, strong females today – to prepare them to handle disappointment, failure, adversity and stress in a healthy manner and success with a humble heart. As important as it is to help the players develop their game skills, it is far more important to help them in their personal growth journey, to prepare them for a world that will be very different than the one I grew up in, and to create a team-oriented culture in a world that is all about ‘me.’ … I try to teach and empower my players to believe in themselves, embrace all opportunities of both success and failure, and how to achieve what they once considered unimaginable; to work hard, be humble, grateful, forgive oneself, forgive others, and always strive to be what God created them to be.”
Three more Michigan coaches earned honors in Section 4, which includes Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin. Hartland wrestling coach Todd Cheney led the Eagles to the Division 1 title in 2016 – the school’s first in his sport – while Dexter swimming & diving coach Michael McHugh has led his school’s boys program to four MHSAA titles including three straight in Lower Peninsula Division 2. Sterling Heights Stevenson competitive cheer coach Brianna Verdoodt led her program to its first MHSAA title, also in Division 1, in 2018 after Stevenson finished Finals runner-up in 2017.
The NFHS has been recognizing coaches through an awards program since 1982. Winners of NFHS awards must be active coaches during the year for which they receive their award.
Peck Bands Together to Honor Welch's Memory as Pirates Return to Diamond
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
April 15, 2026
Bill Kerr didn’t need to spend much time back at the Little League fields in Peck before his childhood friend James Welch caught his ear.
Not in conversation, but from the dugout, doing one of the things he loved most – coaching kids.
“When I got back to Peck 10 years ago, he was coaching Little League. We started talking about how we could get him in front of more kids and doing more,” said Kerr, the Peck superintendent. “I always joked that I was recruiting him. I’ve been around coaches forever, evaluated coaches forever, and you could just hear it, even at the Little League fields. You could hear his message and how strong it was.”
Kerr brought Welch on board at Peck, first as the baseball coach and eventually as athletic director, and over a few short years he made an out-sized impact on the kids he worked with and the community at large.
Welch died unexpectedly on Nov. 6, 2025, but that impact is still being felt today on the baseball diamond and beyond.
“He was always so authentic and positive with (students),” Kerr said. “In this day and age, a lot of adults are kind of hesitant to kind of address some of the things that don’t apply on the field. He and I talked a lot about making them good people and leaders rather than worry about what type of athlete they were. That was the most important thing to him, with his baseball players, he wanted to make sure they were good people.”
The Peck gymnasium was required to host all the people who showed up for Welch’s memorial service, and school was canceled the day after his passing.
His players were there, however.
“The next day we had school off, but the school was open because staff had to report,” said Jen Kluger, Welch’s friend and assistant coach. “All the boys came in. We all sat in James’ office and talked and cried. We were just together.”
Kluger, who began working in Peck in 2023, was surprised at how much the community came together in the days after Welch’s passing.
“It happened on a Thursday, and that Sunday we had a booster meeting because the funeral was going to be at the school and the boosters were going to handle everything,” Kluger said. “Normally, we have five or six people show up, and on that day, I don’t even know how many people were there. I was blown away. Jessica Royle is the booster president and we were texting a couple days later, I was like, ‘I am blown away by all these people that just showed up.’ She was like, ‘That’s Peck. That’s what they do.’”
While the entire community was mourning Welch, it was also there to support his family – his wife Shane and son Grady, who is a junior at Peck.
“I would say it definitely helped,” Grady said. “I felt like I wasn’t alone in grieving. Everyone in the whole community knew him, knew everything about him and what he stood for.”
The Welch family was part of the Peck community long before James began working at the school. He was a star athlete for the Pirates during the 1990s, playing football, basketball and baseball. He was part of the 1995 Peck football team that advanced to the Semifinals, and the 1994 baseball team that advanced to the Quarterfinals.
That 1994 team was inducted into the Peck High School Hall of Fame – something Welch worked with Kerr to establish – shortly after his passing.
“He was like one of those five-tool guys,” said Kerr, who graduated from Peck a year before Welch. “His best sport was football, but he was a very good baseball player.”
Now, while weather has not allowed them to get onto the field much for practice let alone play a game, Welch’s players are together again for the start of baseball season. Kluger has taken over the program as coach, which was announced in December.
“The day before we went on Christmas break, I called them all down to the gym, and I couldn’t say anything until the board approved it, so I had to sit on it for three weeks,” Kluger said. “I sat them all down, and I didn’t know how they were going to react. They didn’t seem upset about it. I got some hugs, got some claps, got some high fives.”
Not only were the players not upset, it’s the move they wanted as they had to move into a world without their coach.
“It definitely helped a lot,” Grady Welch said. “She knew how my dad ran practices, everyone knows her and she’s a nice person. It definitely helps to transition into baseball season knowing that things aren’t going to change.”
Of course, for Grady, it’s much more than simply not having a coach. He admits that the beginning of the season has been difficult – as does Kluger – but his teammates have been there to lift him up when he needs it. Many of them have been his teammates, and played for his father, since T-ball.
“I always have my space if I do need to take space,” Grady said. “But we’ve always been a group that’s been together all the time. We have a very good friendship between all of us.”
To honor James Welch, Kerr said supporters are working to create a scholarship in his name, and that his former high school number will be hung on the outfield fence at Peck.
Welch wore No. 9, as his father’s favorite player was Roger Maris. That number has been worn the past two years by Grady, who switched to it in middle school because of his dad.
Stepping onto the field in a game for the first time – which would be Thursday if weather permits – is certain to be an emotional moment for Kluger, Grady, his teammates and everyone in attendance. But it will also be the next step in honoring Welch by being together and playing the sport he loved.
“There’s a few that are going to struggle (emotionally),” Kluger said. “But I think at this point, they all want to be on the field and want to play.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Peck baseball coach James Welch, left, talks with son Grady during a game from a recent season. (Middle) Welch, far left, stands at the plate for a pregame conference before taking on Capac. (Photos provided by Jen Kluger.)